Social Gatherings
by SirKnightMaxy
Summary: Sasori wasn't one for social gatherings, but with Deidara's art being displayed in the new art gallery, there was no way for Sasori to avoid it. The art in the show is of nothing interesting to Sasori- all except one painting. A panting of a sleeping girl. A sleeping girl with vibrant pink hair. SasoSaku Modern AU


"I hate social gatherings." dully stated a pale-faced red-head. "Why have you brought me here?"

"I told you already, it's the opening of the new gallery showing and my work is in it." A long blonde-haired man replied, as he forcefully lead the red-head up the walkway and towards the museum's doors. "Stop being such a loner, Sasori-danna."

"You're a brat, Deidara." Deidara just smirked as he shoved the shorter man though the front door.

Sasori was forced to wear dress pants and a tie since the gallery opening was a formal event. The clothing that Deidara forced Sasori to wear was really uncomfortable as it constricted Sasori's movements- something Sasori found really irritating.

Deidara had left the Sasori within thirty minutes of entering the gallery in favor of conversing with a red-headed female artist. With a sigh, Sasori wandered around the gallery, giving the pieces of artwork half-hearted glances.

Sasori was an artist himself, and respected all kinds of art, but that didn't mean he liked or approved of all art. The theme of the show was 'Caught in the Moment' and Deidara had instantly jumped on the idea, talking nonstop about how he was finally going to get a chance to show what his true art was in the way it was supposed to be. Sasori scoffed at the blonde's words. The brat was clearly wrong, art was meant to be eternal, not fleeting.

As Sasori walked down the hall he noticed all the different types of artworks on display. There were sculptures, paintings, drawings, etchings, and photography. Most of them depicted scenery, ripples in water, or people. Not a lot of them caught his eye in particular, but that's when Sasori noticed one painting in particular that was hung on the wall near the corner of the room. Walking over to if, Sasori was able to see what it was more clearly. The painting was of a young girl- who looked about seventeen, maybe eighteen- asleep against a tree with a picture book laid open on her lap, and her face clearly held the expression of a deep slumber. What caught Sasori's eye most about the piece was the sharp contrast the girl's hair had against the background. The girl's hair was a vibrant pink while the rest of the painting was various shades and tones of dark and cool colors. Sasori tried to picture what would inspire the artist to choose such a bold and outlandish color for her hair, but before he could think about it any longer, a hand was placed on his shoulder

"They're going to be announcing the awards now, yeah." Deidara said pointing towards the crowd of people that was gathering in the lobby. With a nod, Sasori followed Deidara towards the group, but not before giving the painting one last glance.

"Thank you all for coming here today." A talk black-haired woman spoke to the crowd. "My name is Yuhi Kurenai and I am the galley's owner. Before we announce the awards I would like to say that every single of these amazing artists all succeeded in capturing a moment in time. Every single one of these artists did a wonderful job in creating beautiful pieces of art." She held her hand up towards the artists that were lined up in front of the room, the crowd clapped for them.

"It was hard to choose between all the works in the gallery, but eventually I and my fellow judges were finally able to narrow it down to three pieces." Taking out a piece of paper and clearing her voice, Kurenai began to speak. "In third place is Hyuuga Hinata with her piece _Wind_." A timid looked girl with long raven hair proceeded to step forwards and shyly accept her award and got a few pictures taken before stepping back into line.

"In second place is Katsu Deidara with his piece _fleeting_." Deidara had done a video of his not-yet-famous exploding clay pellets that acted in a similar fashion to fireworks and smoke bombs. Sasori remembered the long hours he watch Deidara make and detonate his creations until he finally got a video shot that he liked. He gave a slow clap as the blonde stepped forwards and accepted the awards and pictures with a large grin on his face.

"Lastly, in first place is Sai with his piece _Sleeping Beauty._ Unfortunately Sai could not make it today, so in his place to accept the award is Haruno Sakura." A much louder applause was heard for the first place winner, even though he wasn't there, but more than a few whispers were spoken when a young pink-haired girl walked forwards from the crowd and accepted the award. Immediately Sasori had recognized her as the same girl in the painting he was looking at. He supposed this solved the puzzle as to why Sai had used pink for her hair. Sakura stayed for a picture before disappearing back into the crowd.

"Thank you all for coming here today and once again, congratulations to all our artists. Everyone is free to stay and enjoy the refreshments we have placed out." With those last words from Kurenai and another round of applause, the crowd dispersed to various parts of the museum.

Deidara walked over to Sasori and flashed his award at the man with a toothy grin. Sasori gave a slight shrug with an unimpressed look, "It's only second place. You didn't win." Deidara responded with a glare and a swift slap to Sasori's shoulder.

"Shut up, yeah, I still placed. These people still don't understand the true beauty of fleeting art." Sasori only responded with a roll of his eyes, "Anyway, it was almost certain Sai was going to win, yeah. He has an unnatural talent for expressing emotions in his work."

"I'm sure Sai would have loved to hear you say that, Deidara-san." A feminine voice said from behind Sasori, a light teasing tone in it, "Ironically, Sai sucks at portraying emotions in real life and in social situations."

Turning around, Sasori was face to face with the pink-haired girl from before, Haruno Sakura. The first thing that came to Sasori's mind was that she was really tall- or he was just short. To keep his dignity, Sasori went with the former thought.

"Hello, Sakura-chan," Deidara said. Sasori assumed that since Deidara had used the honorific 'chan' that they already knew each other. "Any specific reason as to why Sai couldn't make it here today?"

"Well," Sakura began out nervously, "that picture he painted was done without me knowing it. I was actually asleep when he was drawing most of it. When I woke up, all I saw was Sai staring intently at my face, completely invading my personal space too. So," She paused for a moment as she scratched her cheek nervously, "I acted on instinct and punched him. He ended up rolling down the hill and is currently in the hospital with a concussion and a fractured leg."

Sasori was surprised that the small- _She's tall not small- _girl who looked so innocent had the power or ability to punch someone out. Sasori was impressed, to say the least.

Behind him, Deidara just laughed. "That kid will never learn what personal space is." Quickly, the two got into a conversation on the topic of Sai, leaving Sasori to awkwardly stand next to them. He didn't like being ignored, but he didn't like talking even more, so he settled for taking this time to get a better look at the appearance of Sakura.

Her hair was short and held back with a white headband; she wore a strapless yellow sun dress with small red flowers decorated all over it and red high heels. Her face was a creamy peach and her eyes were a soft green. In her eyes Sasori could see many different emotions as well as characteristics of her personality; people did say that the eyes were the windows to the soul. Sasori could see that she was a kind person, but not to be messed with, as well as someone who seemed to be a hard worker and very intelligent as her eyes seemed to hold deep knowledge. Sakura caught Sasori staring at her and was now occasionally glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. Sasori, being one who wasn't too good with social gatherings- as he usually avoided them- just gave her a glare before turning away from her, which was responded to with a roll of her eyes.

"Some friends and I were going to go to the restaurant just down the road for dinner. Would you two like to join us?" Sakura offered up after a few more minutes of talking with Deidara. Before Sasori could say 'no' Deidara had already agreed for the two of them. The older man could clearly see the glint in the blonde's eyes. The brat wanted him to interact more. Sasori swore he was going to get back at Deidara one day.

It wasn't that much longer past that moment of thought that Sasori found himself sitting at a large table between Deidara and another blond-haired boy by the name of Uzumaki Naruto. Hinata was next to him and Sasori learned another day that the two of them were dating. Across from Sasori was another blonde, this time a female whose name was Yamanaka Ino and had a similar hairstyle to Deidara. On her right, across from Deidara, was Sakura, and on Ino's other side was Uchiha Sasuke and –to Sasori and Deidra's surprise- Itachi who didn't look any happier to be there than Sasori did.

"Sasori-san," Sakura's voice brought Sasori out of his thoughts, "do you have a job?" He nodded in confirmation, "Oh, do tell."

"I do various things such as woodworking, carvings, and engravings." He answered, "I also make the puppets for the downtown puppet theater."

Naruto turned his head away from his dinner, "The puppet theater? Doesn't make-up boy work there?"

"If you're talking about Sabaku Kankuro-san, then you are correct." Sasori didn't have the patience to correct the younger boy on the puppeteer paint that Kankuro wore, Deidara himself still called it make-up and still would make fun of Sasori for the few times he'd worn it himself. "He's the one that usually functions my more complex puppets, he is very skilled at the art of puppeteering."

"Wow," Ino said in) awe, "They're really good. You must be really talented to be able to make such amazing and complex puppets at your young age."

Sasori raised a delicate eyebrow at the girl. "I'm thirty-five years old."

The responses were humorous as always. Ino stared with wide eyes and mouth agape, Sakura choked on her water while Naruto choked on his food and had to have Hinata hit his back- she too was staring in surprise at Sasori, and even Sasuke froze at the response. Itachi and Deidra were smirking; in their little group of friends it was fun to see who would respond the worst/best to Sasori's age. Sasori just sighed and continued on eating his meal.

The rest of the meal went smoothly and uneventful and at the end of it all the group went their separate ways. Naruto, Hinata, Ino, and Sasuke all left in Hinata's family car. Sasuke was staying the night at Naruto's and Ino at Hinata's- Naruto and Hinata were also neighbors so it was easier this way. Itachi had left to go meet some of their- meaning him, Deidara and Sasori's- friends. Deidara being Deidara, wanted to go with Itachi so he could rub it in their friends' faces about this art becoming recognized against everyone's doubts. Sasori being Sasori didn't want to bother with his friends' crazy drunk antics and just wanted to go home, so Sasori was left alone with Deidara's truck.

"Um, excuse me Sasori-san?" _So much for being alone._ Turning around, Sasori saw Sakura standing on the sidewalk obviously feeling nervous and awkward. "Do you think you could give me a ride home? Itachi-san was originally going to drive me home, but as you know…" She trailed off a bit, but Sasori knew what she was talking about. "I live in the same housing community as you so it won't be that much out of the way."

Sasori felt like telling her to take the bus, probably because he was tired and wanted to sleep, but if she did live in same community it would be stupid to deny her. That and a small part of him didn't want to part ways with Sakura just yet. Nodding, Sasori led Sakura to Deidara's pickup truck and they drove towards the highway.

The beginning of the ride was quiet, the obvious awkwardness of the whole ordeal hung heavily in the air. Whilst Sasori hoped that the ride would stay uneventful he also wished that Sakura would say something. She was talkative during dinner and the tense atmosphere was irking him to no end. The car rolled up to a stop light and Sakura let out a sigh.

"So," She said breaking the silence, "How long have you known Deidara? You're far older than him, so how did the two of you meet?"

Sasori hummed in thought. He considered not telling her anything at all, it wasn't her business, but something in his heart told him otherwise. Something told him that he could trust her and should tell her. Before Sasori could think about it anymore he found his mouth moving on its own.

"It was back during the days when I had a part-time job running a crafts class when he was only six- I was twenty-two at the time. Deidara was signed up for the Sunday afternoon class and his mother was almost always late when picking him up. It was annoying as hell, but there was nothing I could do about it so I spent those hours waiting for her with Deidara, keeping him happy and occupied. Sometimes she would be so late that I had to drive him home myself or even leave him at his neighbor's house- I later learned that I was damn lucky nothing ever happened to him when I did that, but that's another story. With all the extra time we were forced to spend together the brat got attached to me, and I have to admit the brat had grown on me too." The light turned green and Sasori started driving, silence one took over the car. After Sasori reached the highway he began speaking again.

"One day, Deidara's mother screeched in my face to never bring Deidara to her house again if she didn't pick him up herself. I would have left him at the neighbor's but they had moved and for a pretty scary reason, but again, that's a different story. Besides that, the kid had no other family- none that was living anyway." Sasori made a turn onto another road, "So, I took him to my place if she didn't show up by closing time on Sunday and then the next day I would send him off to school. The next time I'd see him wouldn't be until the next crafts class. This pattern continued for the next year- with him sometimes even walking to my house afterschool if she didn't come to school to pick him up. Then, one day, the police showed up at my house." Sasori had to pause in his talking to both breathe and take another turn back onto a highway.

"They said that Deidara's mother had committed suicide after killing her ex-husband when he showed up unexpectedly at her house and attacked her. After that the question of where Deidara was going to go came up a lot. I don't know why I did it exactly, I still wonder why I did and question how different my life could be if I never did it, but that's all in the past. What was done was done and truthfully I don't think I'd change a thing about it." Sasori could see Sakura's questioning glance at him from the corner of his eye. He sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that night. He supposed that since he had gone this far in the story telling he might as well continue on, "A lot of legal things went down- some yelling too. Deidara ended up staying in an orphanage, but I made sure he didn't stay long. According to government paperwork, Deidara is my son, but in our own personal feelings he's more of an annoying younger brother."

Silence hung in the air for the rest of the ride and Sasori was glad for that. He wasn't too sure as to why he just a young girl- one that he only met hours before- Deidara and his' life history together. It wasn't that Deidara cared for it to be a secret, he'd tell anyone that asked, but Sasori wasn't one who liked to talk about it often. The red head blamed it on the wine he had at dinner, it must have loosened his lips a bit.

Once they entered the housing community Sakura instructed Sasori how to get to her house which was at the very back of the housing community- opposite to the front where Sasori and Deidara lived, but it didn't take long to get there. Sasori pulled into the empty driveway and parked the car. Sakura showed no movement of getting out and Sasori was about to tell her to when she began to speak.

"You are kinder than you let on." All Sasori did was hum in response. He didn't agree with the girl, but who was he to say so? Let her think what she wanted.

"When I was child, I used to highly dislike Naruto." Sakura twiddled her thumbs in her lap and Sasori raised an eyebrow. If the way they interacted during dinner was any factor, it showed nothing of ill feelings towards each other, but then again, why was she telling him this? Sasori chose to stay silent to see if she would elaborate more. "The reason for this was more due to my parents, you see. They didn't like Naruto at all for who his father was- or rather- what his father was framed as.

"Naruto is an orphan, or he was before Iruka-sensei adopted him. His mother died in child birth and his father got caught in the crossfire of a nearby gang fight not long afterwards. That part of the story is where things went wrong." Sakura took a deep breath, "The media got the information wrong and from an unreliable source, but the media is a pack of hungry wolves only caring for a good story, so they still published it. The next day, plastered on every newspaper front, was the headline that Namikaze Minato was a gang leader that was killed in a fight against a rival gang lead by Uchiha Madara. The once good name of Minato was forever tarnished by the media."

Sasori's eyes widened in realization, he remembered when that happened. It caused the Uchiha family years of trouble after it was discovered that their great-uncle was a gang leader.

"After that happened Naruto grew up alone and hated because of what people thought his father was. When we entered elementary school, Naruto met Sasuke. You can only imagine how well that went. The two never stopped fighting for almost two years. They fought in competitions, races, fist fights, and verbal fights. Back then I had a crush on Sasuke-kun, so it only added to my dislike of Naruto since he was always bothering Sasuke-kun, but that's a different story as well.

"It wasn't until our last year in elementary school that Sasuke learned why Naruto was so obsessed with beating him. The events of the gang fight were kept secret from Sasuke; he didn't know that it was his relative that had killed Naruto's father and why he was framed for the fight." Sakura looked out the window; it has started to rain a bit. "It happened when Naruto broke down during lunch on the twelfth anniversary of his death. After that happened the two of them became best friends even though Sasuke won't say it out loud." She smiled in fondness, "Since I was a young naive and foolish girl, I got upset by their friendship. Someone such as Naruto- Sasuke-kun's once enemy, the dead-last in class, and world's biggest knuckle headed kid- had so easily become close with Sasuke-kun while I had been trying for years to even get him to look in my general direction." Sakura laughed at herself, "I realize that was wrong for me to do so, but as I said before, I was naive and foolish and probably a little socially stupid too.

"Naruto and I became friends when he saved me from drowning in a river a little bit before Christmas when we were twelve. I used to be bullied a lot for my hair, good grades, and forehead." Sasori took a look at Sakura's forehead, and had to agree that it was rather large. "One day some older kids were pushing me around as I was walking home. It was a Friday so my backpack was loaded down with a bunch of textbooks. One shove was a little too hard and I ended up slipping on some ice, fell off the bridge and into the freezing water below." Sakura took her hands and rubbed her arms, as if warming her up from the cold. Sasori thought of handing her his jacket, but she was already home and her actions were just a reaction to remembering the incident.

"Before I knew it I was back on the surface. My backpack was gone and my whole body was freezing cold, but I was alive. Naruto was next to me and he was unconscious. He had used up all his energy getting me to the surface safely. People were already crowding around us yelling and screaming for help. I faintly heard an ambulance before I passed out as well.

"My parents' thoughts about him changed completely, and Naruto and I quickly became close. Now, Naruto, Sasuke-kun, and I are best friends." She smiled, "And I wouldn't have it any other way." Sasori stared at Sakura. The car had grown silent again since she had finished her story. It took Sasori a moment to take in all that information, and once he did he had only one question on his mind.

"What was the point of that story?"

Sakura flushed red and stumbled though her explanation, "W-well you told me a deep and secret story between you and Deidara! I only saw it fit if I told one in return!"

Sasori continued to watch Sakura ramble on in her excuses before giving a chuckle that silenced her. "You're a weird girl." Sakura looked like she wanted to punch Sasori into next week. She was about to get out of the car when Sasori placed a hand on her shoulder keeping her in place. He leaned in close to Sakura's face- their foreheads touched slightly.

"Weird, but interesting," Sasori smirked at Sakura's flushed red face. "I _like_ it." Sasori closed the remaining space between their faces in a soft chaste kiss. Sakura tasted of the strawberry ice cream she had for dessert.

Sasori couldn't help it, and smiled to himself. Maybe- just maybe- it was worth it to go to more social gatherings.

* * *

**Ah, guess it didn't turn out as much of a Sasori/Sakura story as I intended it to. My hand kind of flew away with my brain and well….this happened. I like it though. Anyway, this started as a present for my best pal and Beta Raven! She liked it! (Even though she also had to beta it, but she likes to help me improve in my writing.) I know it kind of has a strange ending, but really, I like it more this way. I did add a little more on to it from the original ending.**

**Before anyone says something about the age gap between Sasori and Sakura, that was **_**intentional**_**. I actually had her younger, but then realized that was pushing the buttons a bit too much. (Raven pointed this out before too. I didn't realize I still had it rather young, I thought I had changed it truthfully.) In Japan, the age of consent is 13, but sexual intercourse is prohibited to all under the age of 18. **_**THAT DOES NOT MEAN I AM GOING TO WRITE SEX ABOUT THESE TWO IN THIS AU!**_

**I am also considering making more stories (not sure if one-shots or multi-chapters yet) for the other parts of this AU. Namely, the Deidara-Sasori arc, the Gang arc, Naruto-Sasuke-Sakura friendship arc, and a continuation of the drama romance between Sasori and Sakura. If you are interesting in any of these, let me know. I want to have a good grasp on who is interested in any of these stories before I put any work into them because they will most certainly take up a lot of time.**

**I hope you enjoyed this story. Thank you for reading and make sure to check out my other stories too!**


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